There are certain simple things that you require considering in order to make your experience of meeting people for the first time a pleasant one. Below given are some tips for you to follow when you meet someone for the first time:

1. Be yourself. When you are perceived as being confident and relaxed, the other person also feels more confident and relaxed chatting with you. This also helps you avoid putting up a fake image of yourself in front of others and then, trying your best to maintain it every time you meet them.

2. It can be a scary thing meeting new people, sometimes. But all you need to do is build your confidence and self-esteem and challenge your negative self-talk. Usually, at events, getting into conversations with people you know and then meeting people you don’t know proves to be of great help in avoiding getting tongue-tied or saying things that sound funny or seem out of place.

3. Stop believing in ‘first impression is the last impression’. Although it is quite important to present yourself in decent ways to give a good first lasting impression, do not judge others on the same basis. It is quite possible that they are also nervous chatting with you or that they simply had a bad day. Give them some time in order to strike a good comfort level with them.

4. While starting up a conversation with people you are meeting for the first time, it is advisable to ask them things about themselves. However, avoid getting too personal and getting into discussions on politics, sex, religion, or death. Gradually, when you listen to them speaking about the things they do or the things they like or dislike, you will be able to realize what’s common between you and them.

5. They say that ‘smile because a smiles can do the magic for you’ and this certainly holds true when it comes to meeting new people. Also try being friendly with them, since this will make them feel more comfortable, as well as try maintaining an eye contact which shows that you are also comfortable and confident chatting with them.

Most of our time goes in meeting new people and we are left with no choice of avoiding it even if we want to. Some people find meeting people very exciting, while many find the same idea a daunting thought and prefer staying aloof.

However, no matter what the case, you cannot avoid meeting people every now and then. So, all you need to do this is change your negative self-talk and continue reading to make your experience of meeting people a successful and painless one.

First of all, tell yourself that meeting new people is fun, since it provides you with the opportunity of understanding more about people and knowing what common interests and ideas they share with you. You may get into striking conversations with them or may even land up having a good friend.

It is obvious while meeting people to worry about things like what the other person thinks of you and it is very natural for you to feel nervous, anxious, curious, or excited in your very first meeting with them. These feelings are very common but at the same time, they affect your life negatively by affecting your capability to meet up new people.

So, try your best to improve your self-talk by avoiding thoughts like – Am I making a fool of myself? Am I saying something I shouldn’t be saying? Or I was better at home inside my heap of books! Convince yourself that meeting new people is as exciting as trying out something new or discovering something you never had an idea about.

Meeting people helps uncover their fields of interest and you never know if it turns out to be your field of interest too. You can hang out at book clubs, sports clubs, youth centers, dancing clubs, local parks, or simply join some course such as a cooking course or a learning-language course in a community college.

Having random conversations with people at such places as well as in buses, trains, and streets where you can meet a new person each day will soon change your mindset about meeting people being a scary idea. It will also enable you to build up new friends meeting whom will no longer be a trouble for you.